Bhàs caraid
by Octopus Guardian
Summary: A collection of Scotty whump stories. Character death. Scotty angst.
1. Burning up

**I'm sorry if this is sad. I mean, I'm also not sorry, because that's what I'm aiming for here, but sorry anyways.**

Nothing goes well on the U.S.S Enterprise. That statement, that one sentence, should have been one of the key points for any person to read before signing up. You wouldn't even have to be on the ship for more than a day before some sort of trouble began. Most people on the ship knew this, especially the bridge crew. That's why, after several weeks of no insane activity, the ship's entire crew began to get worried. Whilst passing through the halls of the ship, whispers and mutters could be heard in the far corners. Whispers and mutters with traces of fear and anticipation. Crew of all races and genders were waiting for the one day, the one moment where the entire ship was going to hell. The longer the peace, the more fearful everyone got. Soon, they knew. Soon.

X-X-X-X-X-

"Bones, how's it going in med bay?" Kirk's voice could be heard on the bridge as McCoy walked through the doors. A groan was heard.

"Same as five minutes ago, dammit. Everything's fine. Why do you keep calling me here, I've got paperwork!" Bones snapped back, clearly frustrated.

"I have a bad feeling, Bones," Kirk answered back, not looking at his friend, but deep into space instead.

"Like a sick feeling, or a stupid captain that always bothers people feeling?" Bones rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"As were all aware, everything has been running smoothly for about two weeks," Kirk began, before McCoy interrupted him.

"Yes, and how is that a bad thing?"

"Because nothing is just ok on this ship, Bones! Don't you feel it? That dreadful feeling? How many patients have you treated in the last two weeks?" Kirk inquired, slightly raising his voice.

"Well, nothing major. A few burns from some ensigns down in engineering. Chekov hit his head a couple days ago, but it wasn't anything serious. What's your point?" Bones gestured to Chekov sitting in front and crossed his arms.

"Captain, I would have thought you would have been in a higher mood currently. What Doctor McCoy says is true, everything is running smoothly. There have been no large accidents in the ship, which although is a bit different from usual, it is still better," Spock's voice made the two turn their heads to the Vulcan, who was now facing the two. Bones simply pointed to Spock for emphasis.

"He's right ya know. I know what you're feeling now, I felt it too the first week. I've gotten used to it now. Everything is running well. That's it. Pretty normal for most starships right?" Bones spoke up before Kirk could intercept.

Kirk groaned and got up from his chair. "I get it, I get it. Fine. I still don't like it though. Spock you have the conn, I'm going-"

A large rumble that echoed through the ship stopped Kirk mid-sentence. Everyone on the Bridge stopped what they were doing and looked to each other, some with wide eyes, knowing that the day that hell was going to rained upon them was there, others with confused looks. Kirk immediately answered his communicator when it began beeping. A panicked screaming voice nearly deafened everyone there. It came from Kirk's communicator.

"Engineering to Bridge, this is Scotty!"

Kirk immediately answered. "What going on down there, Scotty?"

"Engineering just damn near blew up, sair! Thare's a big fire down 'ere now, I cannae assess the damage just yet! I need medical staff down here, pronto!" Scotty's loud shouting could barely be heard over the screaming metallic sounds in the background.

"Got it. Try and fix the damage Scotty!" Kirk ordered through his communicator before turning to Bones. "Assemble a medical team to Engineering."

Bones rushed out the doors and his voice could be heard giving commands to his nurses through his communicator.

Kirk sat down in his chair again, preparing himself mentally for any further developments.

"Spock, what's the status?" He asked.

"It appears that an internal explosion has damaged a large part of the engineering department. Just like Mr. Scott has informed us, a fire has started. However, the fire is spreading quite fast, despite the upgraded fire-proofing that was added last time the ship was in for repairs. I am even detected some sort of life coming from the fire. It appears to be some sort of one celled fast reproducing organism," Spock recited to the captain.

"Is there any way to contain it, maybe communicate with it?" Kirk asked.

"Not so far, captain. I'll look into it further," Spock sat back at his station.

X-X-X-X-X-

Engineering was a living hell. Fire everywhere, screams from injured ensigns trying to avoid worse burns then they already had, and a constant screeching sound from the metal being literally melted from the intense heat.

Scotty himself was rushing around the catwalks, trying in vain find a way to save his ship. The fire ate up everything it came into contact with. He had already escorted some of his ensigns to the nurses to be treated when he ran into Bones.

"Scotty, what the hell is going on down here?" He yelled, barely audible over the noise.

"Uh, I'll get back to yah on tha'," Scotty yelled back, running away again in an attempt to help his ship in any way. Bones started to run after him, shouting at him something about a huge burn on his back. Funny, he didn't feel any pain, though he was feeling a bit tired. Probably from the heat, he guessed.

A large crashing sound made him turn around to see a large beam take down a large chunk of the catwalk. Bones was on the other side, seemingly unharmed but a terrified look replacing his frustrated grimace.

"Jus' get everyone outta here! I'll follow soon!" Scotty continued running the length of the path and down a ladder, though he had to let go a few feet from the ground when the ladder burned his hands too bad. He landed on the ground with a thud and a groan. Everything was just too hot. He reached into his pocket for his communicator, but dropped it with a yelp.

The high heat had partially melted the device in his pocket. That's when the true feeling of pain set in. Scotty finally felt the multiple burns and scratches across his entire body and nearly collapsed. He was heavily sweating. No matter. Push through it. There's a ship to save.

X-X-X-X-X-

"Any update, Spock?"

"None yet, Captain. I'm still not certain how this life form got on the ship in the first place," Spock's answer frustrated Kirk, much to the point that he just wanted to go down in Engineering himself to try and fix the problem. Wait, why hadn't he done that yet? It was his ship, for god's sake!

"Spock, you have conn. I'm going down there," he announced, before heading out the door, Spock on his tail.

"Captain, I highly object. The state of the Engineering department is in too much turmoil for anyone to access. The chance of you dying in there is close to 81.4%. Staying here would be a more logical decision," Spock argued, but James T. Kirk had his heart set on going to save his ship.

Spock sighed internally. "Captain, how will the situation improve by going down there?"

"I'm going to try to talk to it," Kirk answered, though Spock heard him mutter "or something like that" under his breath.

X-X-X-X-X-

Scotty could hardly breath in the depths of Enterprise. The smoke was so thick. He was heavily coughing and hacking up his lungs as he tried to drag one of his ensigns to safety. Just a little bit further. An exit was just up ahead.

The loud metallic sounds had calmed a bit and the cries of pain and panicked shouts had almost ceased. Scotty hoped most had made it out alive. The person he was dragging in question was a young male, black hair, or blonde, he was covered in so much ash and soot it was hard to tell. From the looks of it, he had been knocked out by one of the many pieces of falling debris. His head bled a little and he had a nasty burn above his eyebrows. More like what was left of his eyebrows. He didn't recognize the worker, but heck, he was covered in soot and Scotty tended to get too buried in his work to notice most of his workers anyways.

The door was finally in sight and with a new sense of adrenaline, Scotty rushed forward, opening the sealed door in seconds. He laid the ensign on his back against the wall and climbed back through the door for one last once over. There was no way to save his precious department now. The fire almost seemed alive, the way it ate everything up. Scotty took one step away from the door, scouting for any other people. A large crack resounded above him. Without thinking, Scotty leapt forward as a rather large singed piece of machinery fell from the ceiling, blocking the door.

"Well, shite," Scotty whispered to himself aloud as he looked around at his surroundings again, a feeling of raw hopelessness growing in his stomach.

X-X-X-X-X-

Bones stumbled through the corridors of the ship, heading back to Medical, where he was needed most. He sported a nasty burn on his legs from that stray pole that separated him from that idiotic Scotsman.

"I hope he knows what he's doing," McCoy muttered to himself, rounding a corner and bumping into Kirk.

"Jim! What the hell is going on!" McCoy nearly screamed at him, partially for scaring the crap out of him from coming out of nowhere and also for the fact that their captain was currently heading towards danger. Never a good thing.

Kirk stumbled a little from running into the doctor, but recovered quickly.

"The fire is a living thing. I'm going down there to try to talk to it. Maybe find a way to contain it," Kirk continued his way further into the ship.

"Like hell you are! It's too unstable down there! You need to-" McCoy tried to talk sense, but Kirk was having none of it.

"Bones! Get to your station, now! I have a plan!" Kirk yelled back.

McCoy gritted his teeth. "Fine," he spat. "Just make sure to bring back that damn Scot," he spoke through his grit teeth and clenched his fists in frustration.

At that, Kirk stopped. "Scotty's still down there?" he asked, worry lacing his voice.

"As far as I know, yeah. I tried to pull him out. He was injured, but he still wanted to help the ship. Why?" Bones softened just a tiny bit after hearing Kirk's tone.

"I haven't been able to reach him yet. I think there's something wrong with his communicator. If he's still down there-" Kirk didn't finish and instead looked down the hall.

Kirk looked to a device on the wall, pressed a button and spoke into the speaker.

"Computer, locate Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott," He said, then paused for an answer.

"Cannot locate Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott at this time. Scanners in the Engineering department down. Try again later," The mechanical voice answered back.

It didn't even have to finish talking before Kirk and Bones set off for Engineering together, at a much quicker pace than they had been walking before.

X-X-X-X-X-

Another piece of debris scraped Scotty's arm. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't see. His entire body was almost completely covered in black soot, though there were some spots on his body were enough sweat had collected to keep the black ash away.

Scotty stumbled away from a large wall of fire to his left side and towards what he thought was a way out. He was wrong of course, because he didn't get his sorry ass out of the danger zone quick enough. They would probably have to detach the entire Engineering department from the ship to save it.

His legs finally gave out, and he slumped to his knees. It was too much, all of it. He was an Engineer for god's sake, it was his duty to keep the ship flying. What had happened. Why had this fire started? Where had it come from. He couldn't even remember where the first explosion came from.

As the fire began to close in around him, the thought finally got through his head. He was going to die. No way he could get out of this, even if Kirk had decided to ram the entire ship into the ocean as a way to put it out. There was too much. It was too late.

Facing your own death is a strange thing, Scotty thought to himself, taking one more look at his surroundings before closing his eyes.

I guess it's just going to sleep for a long, long time, he thought.

He couldn't keep his eyes closed when the fire did touch him though. Even after having so much trouble breathing, he let out the most bloodcurdling scream as the fire consumed his body.

X-X-X-X-X-

Jim and Leonard finally made it to the doors of Engineering, only to find it blocked by a large amount of flaming debris.

"Well that's just typical," Bones grumbled, crossing his arms and glaring at the door as if it had just insulted him.

"Wait, I think I know a way in," Kirk sprinted to the right down another couple of hallways, McCoy closely following.

They reached a small side door with an injured red shirt by the front door. It seemed as if he had just woken up. His hair could've been blonde, though the soot caked it so it looked black. Eighty percent of his eyebrows were missing and he sported a bad head wound.

Bones immediately kneeled down to scan him and put pressure on the wound to stop the blood.

"Damn it, this door's blocked too!" He heard Jim shout and looked up to see a large pole blocking them from entering.

"T-There's someone in there…" the ensign choked out, pointing to the blocked door. "I dunno who it was but… they got me out. I think they're still in there though."

Kirk and McCoy gave each other a knowing look. It had to be him. Kirk took his phaser and set it to high stun before shooting the metal obstructing them from entering out of the way.

He motioned to Bones to get the ensign back to medical, but the worker spoke up.

"I'll be fine, just call down some doctors. It's really dangerous, I don't recommend going in there, but since you are, it would be better to be in a group," he choked out, before taking his own communicator out of his pocket.

Bones looked back and forth between the two, before stepping into the melting department and saying, "Sorry, but as your doctor, I have to agree."

Kirk shook his head and gave a small chuckle at that, just for the fact that he seemed to pull that doctor card out way too often. He and McCoy stepped deeper into the room, turning back to see the door still open to them.

A loud scream interrupted any thoughts they had and they rushed to the source.

X-X-X-X-X-

Interesting…

Spock read further through the computer's database.

"Very interesting," he wondered aloud.

X-X-X-X-X-

When they found the body they couldn't breathe. Couldn't speak. Not for the fact of the thick smoke, but for the fact that Scotty was dead. He had been burned alive by this monster. This monster that was destroying the ship.

Rage fueled Kirk as he observed the fire. He looked at the entire thing as a whole. He didn't care about communicating with it anymore. He didn't care about any new information or whatever that could be learned from it. All he cared about was killing it. It killed his friend, and know it was about to pay the price.

A spot a different shade from the rest of the flames stood out to Kirk. A bright green spot that slowly inched its way up a wall. It looked to have tentacles, tentacles that looked to be shooting out something. Fire it looked like. It was the culprit. It had to die. Kirk set his phaser to kill. It had to be stopped.

X-X-X-X-X-

"What's interesting?" Uhura asked. Spock glanced up to see Sulu, Chekov and Uhura all looking to him.

"I found some information about a creature that fits the description I was able to get. It is a creature that emits fire to gain nutrients from the environment around it. They are an endangered species that were used in countless alien wars for land control due to their destructive nature. They can be bought on the black market for a high price," Spock recited the paragraph to the others. Their eyes widened.

"How did it get on our ship?" Sulu asked.

"Currently I am unable to answer that. It would have had to have been smuggled aboard, since it is illegal for most species to own one of these creatures. I feel that someone may have brought this creature on to sabotage our ship," Spock stood up and walked over to the captain's chair for the comm.

"This is Bridge to Captain Kirk, do you read me Kirk?" Spock spoke clearly through, but was met with static.

Spock frowned and tried again. Static.

"Uhura, you have conn. I'm going to investigate. It is crucial that the captain gets this information. I'm going down there," Spock left in a hurry, leaving the rest of the crew on the Bridge stunned and silent.

X-X-X-X-X-

Bones didn't even have enough time to talk Jim out of it. He had already shot the thing dead before he could look up. He couldn't get his eyes off of Scotty's corpse. Burned. Completely charred. Dead.

That was a hard idea to keep in his mind. Memories of the bubbling Scotsman entered his mind. Drinking nights had always been the best with him.

Dead.

He heard a shot and almost immediately the fire stopped.

Just ended.

It all receded and disappeared until there was a small thunk on the ground and a small limp green body could be seen on the burned up floor of Engineering. Just as quickly as it had started, it had ended.

Smoke still floated in the air, but a new smell of burned flesh hit McCoy's nose. He gagged. Kirk couldn't bring himself to look down on the ground. He turned away. Closed his eyes and turned away.

X-X-X-X-X-

Spock strode into Engineering, completely awestruck that there was no fire. He could spot two dots of color some ways away from him and headed there.

It appeared as if Kirk had killed the organism. A strange decision for Kirk, he thought. Didn't he say he would try to communicate with it?

A new smell covered up the strong essence of smoke. A black mass on the ground took his attention away from the two men.

"Who is it?" Spock asked, although he figured Doctor McCoy hadn't even been able to scan it to find out yet.

The reactions of the two made Spock actually feel a bit scared to know the answer. Both began to cry simultaneously, McCoy covering his face and Kirk stumbling with his words.

"It's my fault!" Bones screamed, slamming his fist on the ground. "I didn't get him out! I could've-could've stopped him o-or something!"

All the pieces seemed to click in at that moment. Scotty's body was sitting in front of him. This explained the emotional reactions of his captain and the doctor. Scotty was the type of stubborn man to go down fighting to save his ship. And go down he did.

Spock cleared his throat, forcing his illogical human emotions down to talk.

"Captain, I have some interesting information I need you to take a look at."

X-X-X-X-X-

It was him. That guy they had run into in front of the door. The guy that Scotty had saved.

It was several days after the incident, the crew was in mourning. The ship itself had a depressing aura to it, as if it sensed her Engineer had passed. Everyone swore that it had become a few degrees colder.

After much digging, Spock had uncovered that a man named Jake Aberdeen had bought one of the creatures and planned to sneak aboard the Enterprise. He was even stupid enough to leave records of his dealings and his plans.

He wasn't however, moronic enough to stick around. After many security searches, he could not be found throughout the ship. The transporter had a record of one person using it last, with the coordinates still saved.

The bridge crew didn't wait for their ship to be fixed. They took another one and headed for the destination, flying as fast as they could, anger, sadness and pure determination to bring this man in and teach him not to mess with the crew deep in their hearts.

 **That's it. This entire story is just going to be made up of short oneshots where Scotty dies. Why, you ask? Because there's not enough Scotty angst fanfics in this fandom to quench my thirst. And so I write. I'm sorry. I swear Scotty's my favorite character. I know it may not seem like it, but he is. I don't know how many different stories this thing will have, but I have a few ideas. If you have any suggestions for maximum angst, go ahead and comment, I'm all ears. Maybe I can even write up a fic where more than one character dies.**

 **Also the title of the story means "Death of a Friend" in Gaelic. Or so Google Translate says. For all I know it could be pants or something like that.**


	2. I Don't Have the Stomach for it

**This chapter/short story has details of surgery in it, so if you get sick by things like that, you probably shouldn't read this one…**

It started as a simple cough. All sicknesses usually did anyways, just a few symptoms that would pester you all day, forcing you to dip into a box of tissues or take a simple cough drop. A few days later it would escalate and depending on the amount you strained your body or how much sleep you got, it could get bad. Montgomery Scott was no pushover; he didn't need any medicine.

He coughed straight into his sleeves when he needed to, ignored any sneeze that snuck up on him. He had work to do. A few all-nighters later are what made the ensigns around him become concerned. Scotty became quieter, more distant. He lost color to his face, became pale and tired looking. It became evident that the lack of sleep wasn't the only thing causing the dark rings under his eyes.

It came to a point where Scotty nearly blacked out after six days straight of his sickly behavior. He had been tampering with the warp core, just checking on it like he always did, when he felt pain in his stomach. He clutched his gut and closed his eyes tightly, clenching his teeth and uttering a soft groan. He gagged and nearly threw up before hitting the ground. It wasn't till thirty minutes later when someone finally found him and sent him up to McCoy.

Of course, the second he woke up, McCoy was on him, hounding him on how he needed to take better care of himself and how he should have been there several days ago. Scotty could hear the worried tone in his voice and knew that the doctor was only looking out for him, but he didn't have enough energy to argue. His stomach felt like it was on fire, but he felt a prick from McCoy's hypo and fell asleep before he could ask for a pain killer.

X-X-X-X-X-

He didn't stay awake for long, he thrashed in his sleep and silently cried from the pain that blossomed into something even worse in his sleep.

McCoy had to shake him awake and rushed his nurses to find the source. It didn't take long.

A scan revealed a strange looking spot spreading on Scotty's stomach. The scan showed that the disease was causing Scotty's stomach to slowly flake away, piece by piece. This put everyone nearby into a panic. Where had it come from? Was it contagious (Probably not, the ensigns in Engineering had been working with Scotty for about a week and they didn't have any sick patients come in yet)? Were there already medical records and if so, was there a known cure?

A team of doctors was formed to manage several tasks, like setting up and operating table and doing research on whether it was an already discovered illness. One doctor took a blood sample from the sick Scotsman, who sat on a bed and had a silent panic attack. Questions and doubts flew through his head like bullets and suddenly, Scotty felt like the room was too loud for him. He walked out, the room busy enough so that no-one noticed. Scotty walked through the ship until he found himself at an empty room with a large glass screen looking out into the vast outer-space.

He sat on the floor and could feel his heart rate accelerate. He became sweaty and breathed in and out of his mouth at a quickened pace. He stared at the vast outer space, at each individual star and planet and hoped to god that he would get through this.

God, he was such an _idiot_. Why did he have to be so stubborn? Why couldn't he have just gone to medical just to get checked out. Everyone he worked with kept telling him he looked wrong. Hell, he had been feeling wrong ever since day one, but he couldn't get himself to just up and leave. He might die from this for all he knew.

McCoy found him as he started to cry, his face tucked in his knees.

McCoy wanted to shout at him, to yell because _dammit you can't just up and leave like that, I almost had a heart attack,_ but seeing his Scottish friend broken on the ground like that made him take a deep breath and help Scotty to his feet. He gave the crying man an awkward hug, for the sake of calming him down, but he still wanted to protest because dammit he was a doctor, not a teddy bear!

"You need to come with me, we can try to heal you. We didn't find anything about the disease, but if we can get a sample of the thing in your stomach we might be able to make some progress. C'mon," McCoy gave Scotty a gentle tug to get him to walk.

Scotty shuffled along reluctantly, still tired and having problems thinking straight.

Eventually, McCoy got him close enough to the Medical doors that he simply registered a hypo to knock Scotty out and carried him in.

X-X-X-X-X-

The surgery itself was gruesome, bad enough that McCoy himself could taste a little bile in his own mouth. Scotty's stomach smelled like a rotting carcass and that's what McCoy figured was happening. The stomach was a mix of brown and gray, with blood mixed in. The disease covered parts flaked away even when touched a minimal amount. It was incredibly precise work, McCoy tried to be as delicate as possible. He took small samples of the flaked bits from the open body and began injecting certain things into the stomach to try to make it less painful, and to hopefully cure it.

X-X-X-X-X-

When Scotty was sealed back up, McCoy took the samples and passed them on to other workers, exhausted at the work he had just done. He had tried to be as calm and careful as possible, but as he was resting, worrying thoughts came to him.

What if Scotty were to bump into something? Would his stomach fall apart from a touch like that? Would the medicines they just gave him even do anything for him? How long would it take before the stomach acid on the inside broke through and gushed out of his stomach? That last thought made McCoy the most concerned. Should he prepare to replicate a stomach to replace the mangled one. That seemed to be the best course of action, since Scotty's current stomach looked like a lost cause.

A nurse rushed over to him and broke him away from his deep thinking.

"It's Mr. Scott, sir!" he spoke with a breathless voice to make McCoy rush out to see Scotty already being prepared for another surgery.

"What's happened?" He asked in an angry tone, mainly since they were about to cut open Scotty without him being there.

"His stomach burst open! The scans showed that his stomach split along the side and were trying to get him ready, sir!" One doctor said.

The worst had happened it seemed, but McCoy didn't have time to dwell on it. He had a job to do.

X-X-X-X-X-

In the past ten minutes the disease had spread to Scotty's lungs, kidneys and heart. How, McCoy had no clue, but in space the viruses were ten times as crazy as normal Earth ones, so he couldn't say anything. He also could say anything because his hands and mind were working on trying to save his dying friend, with no good results.

The pain killers that they had administered during the last surgery proved fruitless, as they only succeeded in helping the stomach split open. The amount of blood that had filled in Scotty's stomach so quickly made Bones want to cut the organ out and pour the blood out, because frankly, it would've been a lot quicker than the technique they were using. He knew he couldn't do that, blood was an essential liquid for the human body and that idea he had was gross and wrong, but he wished they could work faster. Others were still working on the sample, trying to figure out what caused it, how to cure it, etc.

McCoy had sent other doctors to begin the replication process for the sick organs Scotty had and prepared the necessary tools he needed for several transplants.

X-X-X-X-X-

They didn't make the organs in time. They weren't fast enough. The heart monitor made its soul crushing prolonged beeping sound as Scotty's heart stopped completely and after several tries to get it to start again, it was no use.

Scotty was dead.

The looks on the Bridge crew's faces when McCoy told them all the events from the past several hours made him feel guilty as all hell. He failed. He couldn't save him. He was gone.

 **Here's another one.**


	3. Baby it's Cold Outside

Ever since being on Delta Vega, Scotty hated the cold. He much preferred the warm feeling of engineering, deep down in his beautiful ship over the nasty cold blankets on other icy planets. At any given moment, when reminded, Scotty would go into great depth on his hatred of the time he spent on the frozen hell-scape of a planet.

Which made his good old captain choose him as part of an away team to a literal floating ice chunk of a planet.

Of course he would. They were great friends, and that's what friends did for each other.

So here he was now, standing beside his good friends Kirk, Sulu and Chekov as they all watched him and snickered at his hateful expression he was directing at Jim.

They all wrapped themselves up in warm clothes and stepped on the transport pad.

"What a day for an exploration, right Scotty?" Kirk dragged out the engineer's name in a goofy way, giving him a big grin that made Scotty shoot daggers at him.

"Energize!"

X-X-X-X-X-

As they materialized on the planet, Scotty immediately felt himself sink into the several inches of snow that covered the ground. He watched as Sulu fell over next to him and Chekov laugh out loud, which causes Sulu to knock him to the ground as well.

Kirk let out a boisterous laugh and helped the two up as Scotty took note of their surroundings. It was snowing a bit hard, Scotty was surprised they could beam down in the first place. He was sure that the interference would have been to strong, but here they were.

High mountains could be seen in the distance, though thick clouds kept the group from seeing the peaks. There was also a large forest with trees that still held their leaves, an uncommon sight for a regular person, but Scotty knew Sulu could name at least fifty different types of plants that kept their leaves in the cold, even thrived on it.

Scotty wrapped his scarf around his neck a bit tighter, then trudged after the group of three, who already pulled their tricorders out and began scanning for life of any sort.

The four walked in two groups, pacing several steps in opposite directions. Sulu and Chekov took one way, while Scotty and Kirk took the other. For some reason, Scotty thought it began snowing a little harder as they walked.

"So Scotty, does this brings back any good memories?" Kirk asked, looking around at a few scattered trees as they walked parallel to the forest.

Scotty simply rolled his eyes and kept himself busy with his tricorder, pointing it ahead of them and then towards the forest.

"If by good meamories ya maen nae sandwiches an' blisterin' cold, then sure," Scotty answered.

"Captain!" Sulu's voice echoed behind them.

The pair turned around to see Sulu waving his arms around to get their attention, with Chekov not in sight.

Kirk ran ahead of Scotty, somehow not being slowed down by the thick snow coating the ground. Scotty rushed to keep up, bad thoughts invading his mind. Nothing seemed to go right for them, did it?

When he finally caught up to Kirk, he caught a few of the words Sulu was saying as he gasped for his breath back.

"Tripped," "Fell," "Injured," Scotty caught the drift as he looked down a deep vertical cave, numerous rocks jutting out inside it where the light reached.

"Can we beam him out?" Kirk asked.

Sulu pulled out his communicator, but he couldn't get a signal. Just their luck, Scotty thought glumly, checking his own communicator and getting the same answer.

"Well we can't just wait up here for communications! Is there a way we can climb down?" Kirk shot another question and peered down the hole with Scotty, noting the scuff marks around the edge of the hole where it looked like Chekov hit the ground.

"Chekov, lad! Can yah hear meh?" Scotty shouted down the cave.

"Yis, I am fine!" A faint voice made its way back up and the group of three sighed with relief.

"We'll get you outta there! Hang tight!" Sulu called down. There was no answer, but Sulu assumed he got his message across.

"Oh god, I can almost hear Bones going on one of his rants already," Kirk muttered under his breath, but his joke fell flat. None of them were sure of what to do.

"Great, jus' our damn luck!" Scotty shouted and threw his arms up in the air, exasperated.

"Scotty, do you think you could combine our communicators into one big wave to send to the ship?" Kirk looked to the engineer.

"Aye, I could. It wouldn' do anay good though. Even if we did get ah sign up thare, they wouldn' be able tah beam us out. The snow's too thick," Scotty explained. "I donnae think thare's anay thing we could-Shite!"

Scotty didn't get to finish his sentence. His foot slipped through a small incline in the ground and in combination with the thick snow, he didn't stand a chance.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion for him as he fell backward, watching Kirk and Sulu reach out to try and grab his arm. He dropped like a rock, hitting his arm and head on a few sharp rocks as he tumbled deep into the cave and hit the ground with a heavy thud.

X-X-X-X-X-

The cave was quite dark; it took Scotty a few seconds to orient himself in the dark. He tried to sit himself up but yelped in pain and held his arm. It was throbbing with pain; he knew he must have broken it or dislocated it or something. He tried to make himself sit up again, this time more carefully. He found his way to the wall of the cave, feeling the back of his head. It came back wet and he didn't have to be told what it was.

"Ya still up thare lads?" Scotty called up to the ceiling, finally spotting the bright hole he fell through in the first place.

"Scotty! Thank god!" Kirk's voice came down in the cave again. "Are you alright down there?"

"Ach, I hit mah 'ead an' arm on the way daewn!" He shouted up again, pausing for an answer. His eyes blurred a bit and he shook his head to focus.

He heard Kirk's voice again, though this time a bit muffled. Something about rescue he guessed. In any event, he better warm up. Why was it so cold down there anyways?

His jacket. As Scotty rubbed his arms to warm himself up, his felt his jacket was completely gone. Had he lost it on the way down? It was too dark to see it if it was down there with him, even from the small amount of light that came from the hole in the ceiling.

Scotty muttered curses as he shuffled around on the floor, looking for the lost article of clothing.

"Meester Scott?" A small voice chirped from inside the cave.

It took Scotty a minute to understand the voice, but when he did, he sputtered and nearly fell over.

"Lad? Where are yeh?" Scotty recovered and leaned against a wall, then hissed in pain when he remembered his bad arm.

"I'm en another part of ze cave, eet seems," Chekov's voice wafted its way into the small chamber Scotty was in.

"Are ya hurt?"

"Nyet, I zhink I hef a small scratch on my face, but nozhing else."

"Well tha' makes one of us," Scotty sighed in return.

"How did you get down here?" Chekov inquired.

"I slipped an' fell jus' like you laddie. Hut meh head an' arm on the way down too. Not to mention my jacket's missin'," Scotty listed his problem off with increased agitation.

"Ah, zat would explain zis jacket that fell down here," Chekov stated. "Maybe I can return it to you?"

A shadow flashed across the floor where the light seeped in. Then again. Scotty crawled towards the lit-up area and up through the hole in the ceiling to see a thick blob being tossed in the air periodically. His jacket.

"Cut it out lad! Jus' use it yourself, thare's no way you could get it over here!" Scotty snapped, watching the jacket fall back out of view not to show again.

"Are you sure? Aren't you cold?" Chekov asked, and despite the situation, Scotty managed to smile.

"A'hem fine. I survived the cold once, I can do it again," With that, Scotty sat against the wall and waited. He heard Chekov shifting around in the other part of the cave.

With a heavy heart, Scotty took his scarf off, which had somehow not fallen off him, go figure, and wrap his head the best he could. Best to put pressure on the wound than let it bleed, right? Besides, head wounds could be bad, he remembered McCoy telling him one night while they drunk themselves to sleep after another mission gone wrong.

Now his neck, arms and chest were cold, but he still had his gloves at the very least. Scotty maneuvered his body to curl up and rest his head in a comfortable position. This was going to be a long wait, he could tell.

X-X-X-X-X-

"C'mon, c'mon!" Kirk smacked the communicator in his hand to get it to work, but to no avail. The falling snow was too thick.

"Captain, even if we do communicate with the Enterprise, what if we can't beam them up? What if the cave causes interference?" Sulu shook his own communicator up and down to try to get it to work.

"Then we put together a rescue team to get them!" Kirk answered, hitting his communicator with one big blow. "Kirk to Enterprise! For the love of god, respond!"

"Captain, is there trouble?" Spock's voice was filled with static as it came through, but still comprehendible.

"Yes, Spock! Thank goodness! Chekov and Scotty fell down into a cave of some sort. They might be injured. Can you beam us out of here?" Kirk gripped the communicator tightly as he spoke.

"Oh for the love of god, Jim! One day! One day is all I ask!" McCoy's annoyed voice could be heard in the background.

"Captain, the interference from the current weather is causing too many problems, we can barely read your locations as it is. We are unable to see Mr. Chekov or Mr. Scott at this time, but we will continue with our best efforts," Spock's voice filtered through the communicator before going silent again.

"We might not have that much time, it looks like it's going to be getting a lot colder real soon," Sulu commented, looking at the sky. Snow seemed to pour down from the clouds, and now a strong wind was beginning to blow.

X-X-X-X-X-

Scotty shivered as another gust of wind billowed through the cave, creating a howling noise that bounced off the walls.

"Are you all right, Meester Scott?" Chekov's voice sounded softer, barely audible. Was that because of the wind? It was so hard to tell; Scotty's ears rang with loud force and he felt his body going numb.

"Meester Scott?" Chekov's voice spoke up again, somehow quieter, but more frantic.

A nap would be nice now…

He thought he heard his name called again as he closed his eyes and drifted off, not to be woken again.

 **I don't think I'll have to explain that ending too much.**

 **I would appreciate any comments or constructive criticism of any sort to help me become a better writer!**

 **I'm trying to get the whole team active in my stories, even if it is Scotty-centric. Uhura and Scotty are going to go on a cool adventure together in a later story.**

 ***Dances away***


	4. Behind Enemy Lines

**This one was requested to me by a viewer! You know who you are ;)**

 **I suck at writing a Scottish accent. Sorry.**

"Mr. Scott, you are needed in transporter room two," Spock's voice sounded from the communicator in Scotty's pocket.

"Acknowledged," Scotty grabbed his communicator and answered.

Perfect timing. He had just finished a routine engine check. Was the teleporter down again? That damn thing always had problems.

He made his way casually down to the room, taking the turbolift and wiping his burnt-up hands on his shirt.

When he finally entered the transporter room, he was met by Spock and Doctor McCoy. McCoy made a displeased sound when he saw Scotty's hands but didn't say anything.

"The captain has ordered us to beam down to a near-by abandoned planet to retrieve some alien technology from it. We don't have much information concerning this species of humanoid, obtaining this machinery would be beneficial to learning more about them," Spock informed Scotty when he gave the pair a questioning look.

"So its nae broken?" Scotty asked pointing to the transporter pad, genuinely surprised.

"Affirmative. The captain thought you would be beneficial to this team since you are a highly qualified worker in mechanics," Spock answered back.

"Aye. This sounds excitin'!" Scotty exclaimed.

McCoy scoffed. "Sure. Exciting all right," he rolled his eyes.

"Kirk to Spock, we are orbiting the planet. Prepare to beam down," Spock's communicator buzzed again and the trio prepared on the transporter pad.

"Energize!"

X-X-X-X-X-

The first thing the group saw when they beamed down was a barren, sandy landscape. Large pieces of buildings jutted out of the sand and rocks. It looked like the remnants of a battlefield.

"Over there," Spock gestured to an indent in the ground that appeared to have char marks on the edges.

McCoy lead the group over to the dip in the ground, scanning the area around it.

"Fin' anythin'?" Scotty asked, peering over McCoy's shoulder.

"There's traces of common earth metals buried under this sand. There's a large pocket of it right there," McCoy looked up and pointed to a lumpy patch of sand to his left.

Spock strode over to it and carefully uncovered it. He held it up so the others could see from where they stood. It was a gun. A large one at that.

"What the hell-" Doctor McCoy started to speak, before Spock's hands slipped over a trigger that fired a bolt of white light from the tip of the gun. It hit the ground in a big puff of sand that stung McCoy's eyes.

"It appears I need to exercise more caution when handling this weapon," Spock concluded, looking at the object again and pointing the end from any harm's way.

"Aye," Scotty agreed, looking at the new dent in the ground that the shot made with wide eyes, new char marks evident in the sand.

"What do you make of this gun, Mr. Scott?" Spock inquired holding the object out slowly for Scotty to see.

Scotty leaned down and lightly touched the barrel of the gun. It was warm, from the shot of energy it had just created no doubt. Based on their surroundings, they were definitely standing on the broken landscape of a town or city, most likely attacked by another race of people, or a civil war perhaps?

With this information in mind, and the strength of the one gun running through his head, he grasped the hunk of metal and nearly fell over. The thing must have been at least half his weight. Spock grabbed the gun from his hands as he recovered.

"I apologize, I didn't inform you of its substantial weight," Spock held the gun firmly in his hands, more confident he wouldn't fire off another shot again.

Scotty held his back and groaned. "It's fine. I thought meh spine waes gunna braek in half thoug'," Scotty joked.

"Yeah, well while you two were messing with that big ass thing, I just found out something you two might find interesting," McCoy's voice sounded from behind Scotty and the pair looked up to see the doctor looking even grumpier than usual.

"What's tha'?" Scotty asked, turning to face him.

"I was scanning the area from back where we came and I don't even know how we managed to survive. From this hill, I could search the area much easier. It was a bit spotty at first, but the tricorder picked up trace elements of something called "Zenetyenite". It was scattered all through this area, in small circles," McCoy waved his hand to the large area behind him.

"Hell, I had no clue what Zenetyenite was before this, but I do know. It's just like gunpowder. We just walked through an active minefield. Were lucky we aren't dead," McCoy scowled.

"We should comm up to the ship and not risk our time on here anymore-"

"An' risk a chance like this? Lad, do yah know how much we could learn from taking the apart? We could learn a whole new kind of engineering! Thare's-"

"Hell no! I'm not risking my life, or yours, for some stupid history! We are talking about going through an active minefield, Scotty! Where is your common sense?"

Spock watched McCoy and Scotty grow increasingly louder as they bickered back and forth. Even he had to admit he was a bit intrigued. However, it was much too dangerous. From actually digging up the bomb to disabling it, when they had no knowledge of the type of mechanics the race that had lived here had in the first place, the chances of someone getting hurt were eighty to one.

Spock started walking back from where they came, which made Scotty and McCoy immediately stop arguing.

"Wot the hell d'yeh think yer doin' lad?" Scotty called out, pulling Spock's arm back in a rough manner, which was dangerous in itself because of the sensitive cargo Spock had in his arms.

"I'm following the footprints we left in the sand back to our original position. The geological interference from where you stand won't allow us to beam up from there, so we'll have to go back. Without the bomb. The risk is too high, Mr. Scott," Spock faced Scotty as he talked, then turned and resumed his journey.

McCoy lightly slapped Scotty in the head and muttered, "Told you," Before following, though with his tricorder out to scan the ground just in case. He wasn't taking any chances.

Scotty sighed and gave the sandy area one last look before following in the others footsteps. He bypassed McCoy and went back to looking at the gun in Spock's hands. If he couldn't get the landmine, the gun would have to do. For now, at least. Maybe he could pull some strings with the captain.

He ran his hand over the base of the gun, trusting the others to guide him in the right direction. How had the shot fired off from it in the first place, he wondered. There wasn't any trigger to pull, no button to push. There was a long black square on the side, perhaps that was the key.

Scotty lightly touched it and he heard a small hum. Heat began radiating off the gun and a light illuminated from the handle.

His reflex was to grab the gun and toss it away, even if it was a stupid idea with all the mines around them.

The gun didn't make it out of his hands. The shot fired out of the gun with a strong recoil which, combined with the sudden heavy weight in Scotty's hands, sent him flying away from his two blue shirted companions.

Time slowed down. Scotty saw the look of surprise on Doctor McCoy's face and Spock watching him with what he considered a look of surprise as he hurtled backwards.

He hadn't even landed but he already knew. He knew, deep in his heart, that he was going to land on one of the explosives. He only hoped that it would be far enough away from his friends that they wouldn't get hurt with him.

The impact hurt his back. The loud bang that followed made him deaf for a few moments, as searing pain shot through every nerve of his body. He saw bloody in the air and what looked like pieces of his body separate from him, before his brain shut down for good.

Spock and McCoy had stepped back themselves from surprise. They were blown back further from the explosion, before they went through the same thing themselves with two identical bangs following the first.

X-X-X-X-X-

"Captain, I've lost track of the landing party. I can't read their signals anymore," Uhura's voice rang out on the bridge of the Enterprise.

"Maybe Bones finally quit," Kirk's merry voice called out in amusement to response.

Kirk wouldn't be smiling soon.


	5. Cave of Wonders

"Scotty! _Scotty_! Wake up!"

A voice roused the drowsy engineer. He opened his eyes, only to be met with a dark blur and a throbbing pain in his head and stomach.

"Ech," He managed to cough out, before raising his head to look at his surroundings.

Or at least, he would have had he could. Something was pinning his body down, now that he was actively trying to move around, only to be met with resistance.

"Scotty, are you awake?" A voice called out from his dark surroundings, though he couldn't tell from where.

"Yeh, A'hm awake. What's goin' on?" Scotty choked out, not being able to speak without getting dirt in his mouth.

"You don't remember?" The voice asked. It sounded so familiar, who was it?

That's when it all hit Scotty.

Exploring a cave with Uhura. The cave collapsing before they could escape. He had gotten knocked unconscious as far as he could tell.

His first response was to groan, because he knew he couldn't reach his communicator. His arms were pinned down.

"Scotty, are you alright?" Uhura asked, thinking the groan was from an injury.

"More or less. Ah've just remembered it all," Scotty tried to speak again, having the same muffled effect as the last time he spoke.

"Good, can you reach your communicator?"

"I was about teh ask ya teh same thing."

Silence.

"Well, have any other ideas?" Uhura seemed to be getting restless as she talked.

"Not righ' now, Ah've got teh worst headache. Where are yeh?" Scotty tried to move his head again to search around.

"I'm right next to you, here," He felt a poke in his side and hissed in pain.

"Sorry," Uhura whispered, then all was quiet.

"Does anythin' hurt?" Scotty's muffled voice reached Uhura's ears as she wiggled under the large weight on her body.

"Nah, I got lucky," She grunted as she spoke, trying to wrench a large piece of stone from her left arm. "What about you?"

Scotty chuckled, or, as much as he was able too. "Meh head's burnin' like a charm an' meh side has never felt so shitty in meh life. Unless yeh count that time I caugh' mehself on fire tha' one time in Engineering. McCoy would' stop badgerin' meh about tha' for almost three months," Scotty smiled as he recalled the angry doctor's face when Scotty was dragged into Medbay that day.

"Geez, you're lucky to be alive. I think I felt some blood on my hand when I touched you though. Maybe I can reach your communicator," Uhura grit her teeth as she spoke and Scotty felt a hand pat his body looking for his pocket.

"You'll never be able tah reach it. Teh thing's in my other pocket. You're not on the right side," Scotty managed to not make a sound when she brushed his injury again, but felt his hoped drop when he realized what danger they were in. The debris was much too thick for them to be beamed out of it, not to mention they couldn't even communicate their situation to the ship. Even if they did send someone down it would take them at least a few hours to dig them out. Scotty wasn't sure how bad his injury (was it a gash on his side?) actually was, but he knew blood loss could be a major problem if he didn't get any immediate help.

"Alright wise guy, your shooting my ideas down so you must have a better one, right?" Uhura huffed, clearly growing impatient.

"Most ov meh body is pinned down, I cannae even move meh head. Wha's your position?" Scotty tried again to move and he succeeded in moving his left leg a small amount.

"I can actually move around a bit; my left side is mostly the problem. I think there's some sort of pocket under here on my right. You're on my left, but I guess you've already figured that out," Scotty thought as the information was fed to him.

"Thare's a pocket yeh said? Do yeh think Ah could push yeh into it? Maybe it'd be easier for yeh the move an' yeh could reach my communicator. Or, even better, you get into that space an' use your communicator," Scotty tried moving himself in a more convenient position, just trying to move at all.

"Well, that'd be a pretty good idea, but we both seem to be rather stuck, you being in an even worse place than me. We could try though," Uhura tried to shift her position as well.

Scotty checked each of his body parts to see if he could move any of them, only to find his left arm could be pressed against the ground enough to go under a rough piece of rock to shift over to Uhura.

"Ready?"

"On the count of three."

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

With a grunt, Scotty pushed into Uhura as she got a grip on the edge of the rock laying on her chest for leverage.

Slowly, Scotty heard a scraping sound as he felt his arm extend, pushing Uhura towards the small space she found.

"Well, I'm half out of it. My upper body wasn't that much of a problem, especially with you pushing, but my left foot is still stuck under. Other than that, I'm out. Too many scrapes to count though, McCoy won't be happy with us," Uhura looked herself over, glad she had more space to move and breath.

"Tell meh about it, now could yeh pull me out yeh think?" Scotty was getting sick of all the dirt in his face, being face down in it really made it hard to breathe. Breathe…

Air…

"Uhura?" Scotty said as said Lieutenant was attempting to pull him out.

"Yeah?" She grunted in question, gripping Scotty's shirt as she pulled.

"Do yeh think we could suffocate down here?"

Uhura stopped pulling on Scotty after he put the idea out there. She seemed to be pondering what he said, trying to figure out if the rock was thick enough towards the entrance to block most air.

"I think…" Uhura paused. "I think we'll be fine for now, besides, we're close to pulling you out. Then we can get the communicator."

"Why don' yeh jus' use your's?"

"Oh, right," Uhura mentally facepalmed.

Uhura took her communicator out a squinted her eyes, trying to look at the device in the dark. Was it smaller than usual? She touched the top of it and it finally hit her. The whole top half was gone. It must have snapped in half.

"Well, so much for that. It's broken," Uhura threw it to the side before reaching under the rock to pull out Scotty.

She pulled on his arm this time, with a bit more vigor than before. Scotty tried to use his right arm to push against some rock. He didn't realize the consequences until it was too late.

He felt his right arm slip as the rock he was pushing on gave out, which caused something so alike to a chain reaction that he swore the world was out to get him. The rock shifted over, causing the huge rock on his neck to move on his back, causing immense pressure on his lungs and spine. It didn't stop there, however.

That rock toppled over further down his body, smashing into the rock which wasn't crushing his legs as much as it did now.

Scotty couldn't have screamed out in pain if he wanted, the air was forced out of his lungs from the new rock on his back. A new rock jutted into his legs, favoring the left leg. A rip was heard, and a new burning sensation took over his lower half. He didn't need a doctor to tell him that his left leg was snapped in half. He didn't need a doctor to tell him that the rock had punctured his leg. He choked out his pain and discomfort with small whimpers, unable to make any other sound.

"What the hell!" Uhura cried out, hearing the rocks shift and pulling her arm from her mission to un-lodge Scotty. Her foot was no longer stuck, she could tell from the shift in weight, so she pulled herself out all the way, finally able to move around more freely than before.

"Scotty what happened?" Uhura got on her stomach and looked under the rocks at her companion. Nothing seemed amiss at first, until her eyes skimmed down to his legs. Even in the dark and under the rock, she could see the amount of blood pooling at his feet.

Now was not a good time to panic, but both Officers couldn't help the feeling from creeping up on them.

Seeing the position Scotty was in, Uhura knew there wasn't any way she could move Scotty.

"Forget the communicator, I doubt the darned thing would be able to transmit any signal anyways. Just try an' dig yourself ou'," Scotty's voice rasped, lacking air but still persisting.

"The rock's too thick for that, I wouldn't get far. Are you sure you can't reach your pocket?"

Scotty tried moving his arm, feeling weaker than before. Since the rock shifted, he could move his arm more, and he slowly dragged it towards his crushed limbs. He felt through his pocket at the metal, glad that it felt untouched. He pulled it out, feeling the outside of it with his fingers for any damage. He snapped it open and pressed the button.

Nothing happened at first and Scotty felt more disappointed than he knew he should've been. That was, until a static filled the cave and a scratchy voice called out.

"Finally!"

Scotty couldn't tell who spoke, but he was glad for a response. He heard Uhura sigh in relief next to him.

"Are you guys alright? What happened?"

"There was a cave-in, we're trapped. Can you beam us out? Scotty's injured," Uhura yelled, hoping her voice reached the device in Scotty's hand.

More static, the pair thought they heard a "no" on the other end.

"An away team is being sent down to your location, just try and hang tight, alright?"

They didn't get a chance to answer before the line went dead.

Scotty took a deep breath, or as much air as he could suck in, before slowly letting it leave his chest. He knew it would be a long wait, hopefully his leg wouldn't be too much of a problem when he got back on board. He got incredibly bored in Medical, he could never keep still.

"Do yeh think they'd laugh at meh if they found me asleep, cuz Ah fancy a nap righ' now," Scotty closed his eyes and tried to get his mind off the pain still shooting through his body.

"Scotty, remember what Doctor McCoy said about blood loss that one time when Sulu got attacked by those natives?" Uhura asked in a calm voice.

"Not at the moment, no," Scotty thought back to him and Uhura arriving in Medbay during the incident, hearing McCoy barking orders. What had he said again?

"He told us that people get really tired when they lose a lot of blood and he was yelling at Sulu to keep him awake, remember?"

Now that she mentioned it, Scotty remembered McCoy shouting at Sulu to keep him awake as he injected him with pain medication.

"Tha's right, I remember that… so wot's yer point?"

"My point is," Uhura began, "That in order for you to stay alive you're going to have to STAY AWAKE!" Uhura shouted at him, causing Scotty to wince.

"A'ight, I gotcha. Stay awake," Scotty mumbled. "How long d'yeh think It'll take 'em?"

"At this rate and based on how far we are from the entrance, I'd say two hours at the least," Uhura responded.

There wasn't much to be said afterwards. Uhura would occasionally speak out to make sure Scotty stayed awake and Scotty struggled to keep his eyes open, worried that by closing them he had a chance of never waking up.

When they began to hear small blasts from the outside of the cave and other voices, they sighed in relief. They didn't have too long now.

But Scotty was getting worse. Much worse.

"Just a little longer, Scotty!" Uhura exclaimed, raising her voice for Scotty to hear.

No response.

"Scotty!" Uhura shouted a bit louder, her voice laced with concern.

All she got in return was quiet.

She tried again. And again. Calling louder and louder, panic growing in her stomach.

" _Scotty_!"


	6. Fading Into Darkness

Running through the halls of the _U.S.S Vengeance_ had to be one of the most unbelievable moments of Scotty's career.

Granted, he had some insane moments in the past, yet right now he still had to wonder how he got to this point in the first place.

Oh, that's right, his good old captain had asked him to check those coordinates.

That lead to this ship.

That lead to _his_ ship nearly getting blown up as far as he knew.

 _Just another day in the life of Montgomery Scott_ , he thought bitterly as he dashed through the halls of the unfamiliar ship, trying his best to avoid getting caught by the patrolling security.

Apparently, word had gotten out that someone was tampering with the ship.

Then shit hit the fan when his captain asked him to open a tiny hole in the cargo bay that Kirk would fly through across a large field of debris.

Then he killed someone. On accident, obviously, but damn was he feeling awful as he followed his captain and new companion Khan. Where had Khan come from? Scotty didn't have the time to ask as they made their way to the bridge.

Finally, as if things couldn't get worse enough, he got lost and separated from Kirk and Khan.

Scotty sighed as he turned another corner. _Just great._

He couldn't risk calling out for them. After all, he was considered an intruder, along with Kirk and Khan at the moment. Kirk hadn't brought a way to communicate with each other either.

Scotty walked quickly through the halls, his phaser raised in his arms. He didn't want to have to fight anyone, much less shoot the thing, even if it was on stun.

 _Wouldn't be as bad as that guy you murdered._

Scotty tried to shake away the bad thought. No, he didn't have a choice. He had to open it up for his captain. He did _not_ have a choice.

 _I bet that guy had a family. His kids will wonder where he is. His wife will be crushed._

"Stop," Scotty muttered to himself.

 _Sure, keep telling yourself its fine. I'm sure everything is going just absolutely-_

"God, shut up!" Scotty finally yelled, before clamping his hand over his mouth in shock. Had he really just shouted that out loud?

When he heard sets of footsteps behind him, he cursed and took off running.

Great, now he had two problems.

There weren't many places to run to on the ship. A lot of it just seemed like endless hallways with occasional turns, so losing his chasers weren't a valid solution.

The footsteps behind him grew louder. Outrunning them was out, hiding was impossible, what else?

Fighting. Scotty's least favorite option.

Did he have a choice? The thundering footsteps behind him gave him a sufficient answer. He raised his phaser and aimed for the last corner he turned. The first person to turn was a short male, phaser out-stretched in front of him.

Scotty readily shot him down, grimacing at the way the body slumped over.

Two more people followed, shooting at Scotty faster and forcing him to jump to the side. The hallways were wider than the ones on the _Enterprise_ , so it gave them more fighting room. One of the two, another male, ran forward at Scotty and attempted to disarm him.

Scotty clumsily lept out of the way again and shot the guy down. He looked up to shoot the other person and was shocked to see no-one there. No corner either.

When he had dodged the guy, he had gotten himself turned around. That meant…

He felt a phaser shot in the back of his neck and collapsed instantly.

 _Add another problem to the list._

X-X-X-X-X-

When he awoke, Scotty had no idea where he was.

He was in a small room with a forcefield. That was it. Where had he been before he got knocked out.

Knocked out. The words repeated in Scotty's head. Events replayed in his mind. If he remembered everything correctly, that must mean that he was located in the brig.

Scotty groaned as he sat up from the ground. He couldn't fully stand up and settled with leaning against the back wall. There weren't any visible security guards, which was odd to him. Usually one was always stationed on the outside, or at least, those were the rules on the _Enterprise_.

Maybe the guards were there, just down the hall, or at the other end of the room outside of his cell. Nonetheless, he had to figure a way out. Options? Scotty looked around the small cell. The forcefield at the front of the cell looked different than the ones on the Enterprise. Scotty scooted forward towards it and reached his hand out, expecting a cool feeling like glass.

He was met with an electric shock instead.

"Wot the bloody hell?" Scotty yanked his hand back and cried out in pain. What, was this a barbarian ship? What was the use of the unneeded force?

He took a closer and more careful look at the electric wall. Going slower the second time, he could hear the quiet hum of activity coming from it.

He looked at the seams where it touched the walls. He had seen this type of shield once, when trapped on a ship before along with Chekov and McCoy. That shield had been a weaker one, he recalled. All they had to do to escape was take a piece of scrap metal from the cell (as it had quite the trash heap piled inside it) and rest it against the forcefield to absorb all the electricity it was putting out. When all the electricity was sapped from it, the loss of power in the shield would cause the actual barrier to short circuit. That had effectively taken out the shield in the past, yet now…

Scotty looked back into the tiny box he was trapped in. Nothing at all. He did have his clothes, but as those were made of cloth, they would be burnt up from such a high shock. That seemed to only leave two options.

Option one: sit and wait. That was already a dying option in Scotty's mind. There wasn't any doubt in his mind that his ship was in trouble. His friends were in trouble. Something had to be done. That lead to option two.

Use his body to absorb all the electricity. That left a few questions rolling around in Scotty's mind. Was the shock enough to kill him? It didn't matter, if he stayed in this cell, he was probably dead anyways. Could he withstand the pain and stay conscious to get out? He had no clue. Finally, did he truly have no other choice? Scotty glanced at his surroundings one more time before taking a deep breath, standing up and forcing both of his palms into the electric barrier.

X-X-X-X-X-

Across the ship, Kirk was growing increasingly worried about the missing engineer. Scotty had been following them and watching their backs for most of the time. How had they gotten separated? The only time Kirk could figure they could've accidently parted ways was when they had been attacked by a larger group of security officers a mess of hallways away. They had to duel it out in a large open space where four paths converged. Khan had rushed forward to take down their opponents and Kirk had followed behind, giving him cover fire. Perhaps Scotty had been shot at from one of the sides?

It didn't matter. Jim's only current interest was to try and locate his friend.

Khan kept insisting that they needed to keep on going and that Scotty would be capable enough to take care of himself. Kirk wanted to agree, the thought of Scotty singlehandedly infiltrating the ship and taking down its giant weapon occupying his mind. Jim finally gave in, telling himself Scotty would find his own way to the bridge. After all, he had been on this ship longer than Khan or him had. He still kept a sharp eye out for the Scotsman and would periodically call out for him, just in case, even though Khan would give him nasty looks every time he did so.

Kirk already had plans in his head to stun Khan as soon as they got to the bridge and downed Marcus' crew. Khan couldn't be trusted. It would be more difficult without Scotty, Kirk knew, glancing at Khan who was crouching down and peeking around a corner.

Hopefully, Scotty would find them again or meet them at the bridge in time.

X-X-X-X-X-

The shock was immediate and painful. It coursed through him and spread to every fiber of his body. He wanted to let go, it hurt too much. Every nerve in his body was screaming at him to stop. He clenched his teeth and fought to keep his eyes open. _Dear lord, how much longer?_

He had only touched the shield for a few seconds, yet the pain felt like it had been eating at him for hours. This shield held a lot of power, hopefully not enough to keep going for too long.

Scotty's legs began to weaken and he sunk to his knees. He was putting in a lot of effort to keep his hands on the wall.

Speaking of which, was it starting to fade a bit? The color did seem off, but then again, it could just be the electricity messing with his head.

Everything around him began turning gray, the edge of his sight consumed by black. How much longer would it take?

 _This was a stupid plan_ , Scotty said to himself in anger. _You couldn't have come up with something a bit smarter?_

Scotty didn't have enough time to finish his berating thoughts as something pushed him forward. He landed hard on his face and groaned.

What had pushed him? Scotty was in so much pain, he barely had enough energy to push himself up to look.

There wasn't anyone behind him. Who had pushed him. Who had taken the forcefield down?

.

.

.

The forcefield was gone. Scotty was lying halfway out of the cell. That meant…

He had freed himself. When the barrier had finally given out, he fell forward.

Scotty smiled and nearly laughed when he realized it.

"Oh, thank heavens," he said, out of breath but grateful.

He still had work to do though. He was sore all over and it hurt to move, but he knew he needed to get up and help his captain.

Scotty shifted his weight and got to his feet in lethargic movements, the pain his body felt weighing him down. Never in his life could he recall having an electric shock as bad as the one he endured.

"Tha' forcefield was ah piece ah junk. Who built tha', a three-year-old?" Scotty muttered to himself, looking at the empty cell in disgust. Even though the shoddy built of the electric wall had let him escape, he was still taken-aback that such a nice ship had such low-quality equipment.

Scotty turned to the exit, already planning in his head the quickest route to the bridge. However, he was stopped short from the door opening and a male security guard stepping through.

The guard froze and stared at Scotty with a shocked expression, which Scotty returned. The guard fumbled for his weapon after recovering from his stupor and Scotty was too weak from pain to stop him.

"Don't make any sudden movements!" The guard spoke to him in a demanding tone.

"Lad, the day ah take you down is the day tha' ah stop drinkin'. It ain't happenin'," Scotty raised his hands in surrender as he answered.

"I- what?" Clearly the guard was confused. Obviously, he hadn't seen Scotty absorb the electric shock. Scotty could barely stand, let alone fight someone.

The guard cleared their throat. "I have orders to take you to another part of the ship. Do not attempt to resist, as it will end up in your death," For emphasis, the guard raised their phaser and leveled it at Scotty's head.

"Ah got'cha. No fightin'," Scotty sighed. He was too tired to think straight. The shock had taken more out of him than he expected.

The guard grabbed his wrist and pointed the gun at his neck as a show of force before marching him away from the brig to who-knew-where.

Scotty tried to keep up, but the guard moved too fast. The guard shoved him ahead and tapped his back with the barrel of the phaser to keep him going, but Scotty's legs dragged with each step.

After the fifth hit on the back that almost made him fall over, Scotty grew impatient.

"Listen, ya daft fool. Ah jus' used meh body as ah ground in tha' cell to take down tha' electric forcefield. Now Ah'm sorry tha' ah cannae keep up to speed by your standards, but Ah'm havin' a pretty shitty time 'ere, alrigh'?" Scotty spat in frustration.

"Not my fault. If you keep going like this, I'll shoot. This phaser is on kill. This is your final warning," The guard replied, pushing the phaser into Scotty's back once more with more force.

"Heh, ya ever killed someone before?" Scotty asked, complying with the man as best as he could and trying to walk faster without getting his legs twisted. "It's nah as easy as yah think."

The guard ignored him and lead him down hallway after hallway. Scotty tried to keep up, but after five minutes he gave up trying to keep track of the identical walls and floor.

The pair eventually reached a door and when they stepped inside, Scotty's palms grew sweaty. They were in a chamber that looked like it connected to the airlock. There was a large window with a door that looked to lead to a wide space blocked by a large door with big red letters that read, "Danger".

The guard hadn't threatened to kill him the whole way just to end up shooting him off into space to die, would he?

Scotty's wrists were pulled behind him and Scotty finally felt enough strength to try and resist. He tried to pull away from the guard, but was met with a kick to the shin.

A click sound hit the air and Scotty felt a pair of handcuffs secure around his wrists. He was shoved to the ground facing the window that lead to the airlock and heard the guard leave. The door made another sound, making it clear the guard locked the door.

Scotty squirmed on the floor, sweat forming on his body more now that he was faced with a terrible thought. He did not want to die like this.

 _I'm sure that guy you killed didn't want to die like that either._

 _Oh, will you shut up!_

Scotty's thoughts fought back in forth as he tried to get his mind on escape rather than guilt.

It was difficult to keep his mind on one thing in the first place. Scotty was in pain. Physical and emotional pain.

He killed someone earlier, even if it was on accident, he couldn't convince himself otherwise that it was for the best. The poor fellow he killed had a painful death, getting sucked out into the black abyss and suffocating. Scotty couldn't help but feel like this was karma. He got hit by a phaser, nearly blacked out from a horrifying amount of electricity and now he was going to get thrown out into space.

Things couldn't get any worse in his mind.

Then someone entered the room.

X-X-X-X-X-

"It's over sir. Surrender your ship," Kirk commanded.

Jim had just shot down Khan while the man's back was turned. Carol was safe. Kirk hadn't seen Scotty, but he felt that Scotty was safe. At least he hoped.

Marcus didn't look worried at all. He simply raised his eyebrow at Kirk and scoffed.

"You think I'm going to give up just because you have a gun in my face?" He rolled his eyes.

"Sir, I'm asking you to step out of the chair. I don't want to have to use force," Kirk merely kept his phaser raised at the admiral.

"You want me to get up? Fine. Guess I'll show you my trump card," Marcus sat up from his chair and strolled over to the console in front of him.

Kirk kept his phaser aimed at him, not sure whether or not to shoot the man. What did he have up his sleeve? If he tried to shoot the _Enterprise_ again, Kirk could just stun him and stop it. What was the gimmick?

"I found out about that crewmate you sent onboard," Marcus still stood at the console face down, yet he glanced up to see Kirk's reaction.

Kirk's eyes flickered with understanding, but he hid it well.

"Now I have no idea how you were able to beam someone aboard and stop me that quick, so clearly, he must have been on board for a while," Marcus continued.

"The crew I sent to this ship to stop you has already left. They are back aboard my ship," Kirk declared, hoping his face wasn't betraying his words. Jim chose to ignore the second part of the statement.

"Really?" Marcus asked with fake surprise. "I guess I'll just send that bloke my security found earlier through the airlock after all."  
At that, Kirk's eyes widened. "Wait sir! Wait!" Kirk held up his free hand and took a step forward. Marcus' finger hovered above a communications button before pressing it down.

"Claudia, dispose of him," Marcus said aloud.

"Wait, wait, wait! Don't!" Kirk shouted over him

"Hold it, chief," Marcus looked Kirk dead in the eye as he spoke.

"Sir?" A female voice crackled through the comm.

"Stand-by Claudia. You know the orders. If you habe any doubts of the situation, get rid of the hostage," Marcus kept the communication open and turned to Kirk.

"My chief of security is excellent at what she does. Don't think for a second that you can shoot me and get away with it," Marcus sneered.

"Put the phaser down. Leave Khan there. Get off my ship. I'll spare your crew if you do-"

"That's a lie! You said it yourself! You'd never spare my crew! You think I'm going to believe that you'd let us off and fly away with no trouble? You'll just kill him and shoot my ship like you were originally going to!" Kirk shouted back.

Marcus stood stone-faced for a moment before typing on the console again.

Kirk panicked for a moment, thinking he was ordering his chief of security to kill Scotty, before a video screen was pulled up.

Kirk's eyes almost bulged out of his skull when he saw it.

Scotty was crumpled on the floor, leaning against the window to the airlock. Next to him was a woman standing above the engineer.

Scotty's hair was thick with blood and his arms were limp at his sides. He had bruises littering his face and by the way he sat, Kirk guessed they were on his body too. One of Scotty's wrists had a half of a pair of handcuffs. It looked like the chain connected the two metal bracelets had broken and pieces of metal were jammed into Scotty's left thigh. Blood stained much of Scotty's pants and hands.

It made Kirk sick. How long had the woman been at this?

Kirk was angry at himself. He should've tried to find Scotty. He shouldn't have left him behind. Now he was on the verge of death and Kirk had no plan. What could he do?

He could stall for time, but time for what? There was no visible winning choice. He could only surrender and get everyone killed.

"What's it going to be?" Marcus folded his arms and stared at Kirk, fully realizing his advantage.

Kirk began lowering the phaser. "I surrend-"

A large mass of black tackled Marcus to the floor. Marcus cried out in pain before a sickening crunch was heard and Khan stood before the dead body.

On the camera screen, the woman seemed to hear the scuffle anf advanced towards Scotty, ignoring his weak pleas for help.

Kirk rushed up to the screen in panic, but Khan pushed him away and turned it off, glaring at Kirk.

"You've made a huge mistake, captain."

X-X-X-X-X-

The second someone new stepped into the room, Scotty new it wasn't anyone friendly.

His thoughts were confirmed when he was grabbed by the back of his neck and thrown against the window.

Scotty couldn't see who was hurting him, with his face pushed up against the wall, but he got a _splendid_ view of the airlock door.

Which didn't calm his nerves in any way.

The person let go off him and let him drop to the floor (of which people on this ship seemed so fond of doing so) and punched him in the face.

"Ow! Wot tha hell was tha' fer?" Scotty yelled, more angry than anything since this person just came in and started beating on him for no reason at all.

"Don't talk," Scotty was hit once more as the voice spoke.

Scotty had been moved around enough to see him attacker finally, though through blurred sight.

Judging by the voice and the undefined outline in front of him, it seemed to be a woman. A very tall woman, Scotty thought. He needed to crane his neck up to look at her face.

The woman brought her leg up in the air to kick Scotty, but he pushed himself out of the way in time.

This only seemed to make the lady angrier. She grabbed Scotty's wrists and began twisting them both. As if the handcuffs weren't already bruising his skin enough, the extra pain only made it worse.

Scotty flinched at the growing pain, trying to break his hands away. The woman only pushed harder.

When Scotty finally yelled out from the pain, she stopped.

Another kick came down, planting a solid hit in Scotty's back. His vision was no longer blurred but the pain from the earlier electric shock he had was resurfacing with a new punch to it.

The beatings only continued. The woman was very well built and strong, every punch and kick hit hard and when she finally missed a kick, she hit one of the cuffs around Scotty's wrist, causing it to shatter. Pieces of metal littered the floor.

Relief overtook Scotty, he could finally move his hands and the blood was coming back into one of them. The woman looked caught off guard by the turn of events, clearly angry that a kick that could shatter metal missed its target.

In response, she picked Scotty up and slammed him down on the shards of broken metal. Scotty hit the ground on his side, his left thigh taking the brunt of the hit.

The woman slammed the back of his head into the window and left him slumped against the door.

The metal pieces sticking out of his legs burned, Scotty felt each drop of blood and sweat roll down his body. A large, cold puddle of blood began growing around the metal imbedded in his leg.

Scotty wasn't sure of the temperature of the room anymore. He was sweating, but a cold touch was settling on his body, causing him to shiver.

The woman had ceased her attack, but Scotty was too weak to lift his head to find out what was happening. It sounded like someone was talking.

He thought he heard his captain's voice a few times, which wouldn't make any sense. Why would his captain talk to the person beating him up like that? Maybe it was someone else, probably ordering her to kill him.

The woman took a few steps towards Scotty and watched him. He was having trouble breathing and the sensation he was going through earlier was coming back. Everything was going gray, darkening the floor Scotty was staring at.

He wasn't sure of how many minutes passed, but his darkened sight finally left when he heard a large thud and a cracking sound fill the quiet room. The way it sounded made it obvious that it wasn't from the room itself, rather from a communicator. What was it though?

It must've been a signal of some sort, because the woman drug Scotty through the door into the airlock.

"Please… please don't," Scotty's voice was only a hoarse whisper. His sorry pleads didn't change the woman's mind.

She walked back out the door, leaving Scotty on the floor of the airlock.

His labored breathing was the only sound. Any second now the door would fly open and suck him out into the depths of space.

He wasn't sure how long it would take to kill him, but he hoped it would be quick.

Scotty sat still for a few moments, excepting his fate. He tried to think back on his life, but nothing good came up. His Transwarp theory had been stolen by Starfleet, he spent the better years of his life marooned on a cold version of hell and he quit his job and nearly got everyone on his ship killed. If he hadn't been on this ship to stop it, who knew what would have happened.

Yet, if he hadn't been on this ship, he would have probably lived longer.

As long as Kirk and Khan could stop the _Vengeance_ from firing its weapon again, it seemed everyone would be safe.

It took Scotty a few moments to realize it was taking an awful long time to open the airlock door. Did it really take this long to open a door? His anxiety about the situation was killing him quicker than space would.

As he dwelled on the thought, the exit to the airlock opened. Scotty almost didn't realize it until a hand brushed his shoulder.

"Mr. Scott? Are you conscious? It's me, Carol," A female voice spoke.

Scotty slowly tried to push himself off the floor to look. He got help from an arm that pulled him the rest of the way to his feet.

Scotty groaned in pain but still forced a grin on his face.

" 'Bout time someone showed up," He joked.

Scotty remembered seeing Carol a little bit before he had quit. What was she doing here now?

Scotty got a good look at Carol's face. She was a bit bruised up and sported a bloody nose. There was a phaser in her free hand.

"Wot happened to ya?" Scotty asked, trying to stay standing up on his feet.

"I tried to stun the lady who almost killed you. She dodged it, which I should've expected from a chief security officer. I got into a little tussle with her. If it weren't for this phaser, I'm sure she would've won," Carol wrapped her arm around Scotty to give him stability and the pair walked out of the room back into the halls.

"Where are we goin'?" Scotty asked after walking a few steps.

"To the bridge. I left when I heard you were in the airlock. I don't know if Kirk noticed me leaving, but hopefully he stalled enough," After she spoke, Carol slowed down as if she remembered something.

"Wait… Marcus said to kill you when the officer had enough reason to, right? That would mean Kirk shot him, correct?" Carol asked aloud.

"Ah'm nah sure about 'earing a phaser go off, but Ah did hear somethin'," Scotty recalled the strange noise he heard before being tossed into the airlock.

"What did you hear?"

"It sounded like ah crack. Like the sound of a baseball bat er summat. Ah'm nah really sure."

Carol's brow furrowed and Scotty could feel that she had begun to pick up speed, nearly carrying Scotty with her.

X-X-X-X-X-

When the pair finally reached the door to the bridge and it opened, everything became clear.

Khan was holding onto Kirk and pointing a phaser at his head and the outline of a bloody body was discarded at their feet.

Spock was on screen, talking to Khan. Scotty was too shocked by Kirk's position to pay heed to any words.

"It's simple. Give me the torpedoes and I'll return your captain," Khan said in a deep voice.

"What of Carol Marcus and Montgomery Scott?" Spock questioned back, not seeming to have noticed said people had walked in the room yet. Khan didn't seem to notice them either.

"Of Marcus, I'm not sure where she ran off to. Scott is dead," Khan declared. Spock hid his surprise well, if he was.

Scotty was a bit offended that he was already pronounced dead. Now that was just ridiculous, he was standing right there for crying out loud! Without thinking, Scotty let go of a startled Carol Marcus and marched forward, saying, "Ah'm nah dead, yeh blind buffoon!"

No-one in the room knew what a surprised Khan did or looked like until that moment. He was a genetically engineered human, for goodness sakes, it would be near impossible to surprise him. Yet in that moment, Khan's eyes grew as he turned around in shock to see a ticked off Scotsman and a surprised first officer in the room.

"Scotty?" Kirk shouted in surprise, still trapped in the arms of Khan but thankful to see the engineer still alive.

"Now Ah've had a bad enough time over here as is, wot with havin' gotten lost on this bloody ship and then ah got shot righ' in tha back o' meh neck! If tha's nah enough, Ah also had tah endure ah real painful electric shock for meh troubles. Then Ah go and get beat up an' nearly tossed out of an airlock by tha chief security of this 'ere ship, which bloody hurt by the way! If it weren't fer the lass standin' behind meh, Ah'd be a dead body floatin' in space. Now I donnae see why yah have to go an'-"

Scotty didn't get to finish the rant he was having. As soon as he got within arm's reach of Khan, he was grabbed by the arm and thrown to the ground. Scotty lay on the floor, unresponsive. He had been knocked out cold from the hit.

It was bad enough seeing his crew beaten up and bloody, but watching Khan toss Scotty over the console to the ground after all he had been through made Kirk's blood boil.

"Don't you try anything," Khan shot his phaser next to Carol as a warning shot before turning back to Spock on the screen.

"I won't repeat myself again, Vulcan. Give me the torpedoes and I'll return your crew," He hissed with venom.

Spock sat still for a moment, perhaps still recovering from the events.

"I agree to your terms. The torpedoes are yours," Spock finally answered.

X-X-X-X-X-

When Scotty woke up, he was in med-bay and the whole ship was jostling around. He sat up too quickly and got to his feet. He was back on the Enterprise. McCoy was yelling somewhere in the room and nurses were rushing around, tending to other patients. Scotty looked to himself. He was covered in bandages, but the metal was still in him. He couldn't have been out long.

McCoy walked up behind him and yelled, "Lay back down, I need to take out that metal!"

"Right now? The ships going down isn' it?" Scotty recognized the alarm sounding.

"I don't care! Stay right there, I'll be right back!" McCoy shouted back at him over the alarm.

Scotty had to admit, it was kind of admirable how devoted to his job McCoy was. But Scotty was too.

The engineer couldn't take it anymore. He started limping for the door. His ship was in trouble and he wasn't going to let the damn thing blow up. He hadn't been gone for more than a week and the ship and everyone on it was almost dead.

An angry shout echoed down the hall as Scotty began running to Engineering. Where had all this energy come from?

He was so deep in his thoughts that he nearly ran into Kirk.

"Captain!"

"Scotty!"

The two stared at each other for a moment until Kirk finally spoke up.

"Scotty, what are you doing? Your supposed to be in Sick-bay!"

"Ah'm sorry captain, but Ah cannae leave the ship like this! It's meh job the fix her!" Scotty replied taking off towards Engineering again.

The determined Scotsman didn't see the look of worry or surprise his captain had.

"Wait Scotty! I'm coming with you!"

The two ran to Engineering, Scotty keeping up with his captain despite his injuries and even being able to dodge people and stay on his feet when the ship began turning over.

When they arrived in engineering, they came to a catwalk just as the ship moved to the side with one more hit. Both men fell over and Scotty was sure he was done for, until Chekov had rushed over and pulled them both up. Bless the lad, he had been the engineer while Scotty was gone and he had been doing a fine job as much as Scotty could tell.

Work still had to be done though.

After more running and splitting up, Scotty felt that they would finally be able to save the ship. He reached for the console to finally type in the commands to right the ship, when he noticed the warp core had been knocked out of alignment. It wouldn't work. They were out of time.

Things got worse when he explained the situation to Kirk, who decided knocking Scotty out for what seemed like the hundredth time that day was a good idea. His captain also thought going into the wrap core to realign it was a good idea.

When Scotty woke up buckled to a chair and the ship purring smooth as always, he was scared to look behind the glass. He knew what he would see.

Scotty dragged himself out of the chair and slumped against the glass next to his captain.

"Yer an idiot, a goddamn bloody idiot," Scotty scolded him, tearing up.

"I didn't have a choice," Jim rasped behind the glass, looking Scotty in the eye as he spoke.

"Ye could've let me do it!" Scotty screamed. "Ah haven't been able to fix this ship at all! Ah resigned!"

"It's the captain's duty to keep the crew safe. I couldn't let you do it. After all that's happened to you, I didn't want you to. When we got separated on the ship, I knew I should've looked for you. Khan convinced me you would be fine and I believed him. I still can't understand why I trusted him. Scotty, I'm so sorry," Kirk looked awful, not just from the radiation, but also from the heavy guilt. Scotty knew the feeling.

The engineer let out a dry laugh before talking again, "Ah had tah kill someone tah let you an' Khan on board. Ah donnae know who he was but Ah've never felt so bad in all my life. Ah think everythin' tha's happened so far has jus' aught up tah meh," Scotty's eyes flickered for a moment.

"Call Bones, Scotty. Go back to Sick-bay. You can't save me, but you can save yourself," Kirk poked the glass to get his sluggish companion's attention.

Scotty didn't respond. His legs felt numb and the back of his head was throbbing. Spock should be here, he thought. McCoy should too.

Too bad he didn't have his communicator. There was one on the console, but it looked so far away. Scotty was just fine sitting where he was.

"Scotty," Kirk said in a weaker voice than before. The radiation made it painful for him to do anything, but he needed to make sure the engineer got help.

"Get Bones, Scotty," Jim repeated. Scotty didn't move. The chief engineer's eyes were glued to the wall. "Scotty!"

No response. Kirk was beginning to panic now. He couldn't get to him. Only Scotty could help himself, but if he was too weak to…

Kirk passed out before finishing the thought.

X-X-X-X-X-

Kirk didn't expect to wake up. He remembered everything clearly the second he was conscious, which was crazy. The fact that he had died and come back to life and the fact that he had such a clear memory.

Bones was taken aback when he finally saw Jim wake up and Kirk immediately asked for Scotty.

It took a lot of convincing on McCoy's and Spock's part (who had arrived only two minutes after McCoy had spread the word that Kirk woke up) that Scotty couldn't be saved.

Khan's blood had been used to revive Kirk, but Scotty had died from blood loss. There was no saving him when people finally found the pair next to the chamber door.

Jim was silent. Why couldn't he have just sent Scotty back to Med-bay? Why couldn't he have called McCoy down to Engineering the minute Kirk knocked the man out?

Spock also stayed quiet. He was immensely grateful that Kirk was alive and fairly well, but with the absence of their engineer, there wasn't any way to be happy.

McCoy was angry beyond belief. He slammed things down and used unnecessary force for simple tasks. Why hadn't he tied the damn insane Scottish man down? Of course he would get up and leave his Sick-bay, of course! Why hadn't he known that sooner? Why couldn't Leonard have realized that the man was low on blood and already crazy enough to go on some stupid death mission.

Even years after his death, all anyone could ask was 'why'.


End file.
